A Lost Creation

Nightmares

Touya was pretty good with kids.
He'd kinda had to be, what with three younger siblings. Two of which he'd pretty much solely been in charge of seeing as those two were deemed as pretty much useless with solely ice Quirks.
Dear old mom had been too caught up with her own problems, never mind the post-partum depression that had rendered her barely able to move out of bed after Shoto was born. Of course, dad never helped once.
So when he'd seen the kid in the alleyway climbing into the dumpster, it was as though that forced parental side of him had reappeared.
She was young. Far too young to be homeless and searching in businesses trash for food. She was younger than even he had been when he started roaming the streets.

And so he'd taken it upon himself to keep an eye on her.
She was pretty easy company. She was quiet, not really speaking unless spoken to, quick to do as asked, even if she looked a little uncertain about it at first.
For a ten year old, she was pretty switched on. She behaved herself unlike Touya at her age. She seemed like a perfect kid, which had Touya wondering why she was on the streets in the first place.
Whenever he asked about her parents though, her face would crumple and her eyes would tear up instantly. The reaction was so visceral that even Touya's heart would clench a little at the sight of it. So he hadn't pushed it.

He'd expected her to struggle to get to sleep a bit more. She'd looked nervous when he'd asked her where she wanted him to set her bed down for the night.
She was certainly nervous enough to decide she didn't want to part from him for the evening. She even pulled out some tattered old teddy from her bag for comfort, holding it with a death grip to her chest.
When he'd looked up from his phone to see her breathing had deepened and slowed, he'd placed his jacket over her small, sleeping body. They didn't offer blankets here, but the jacket would do. He didn't need it after all, he had his Quirk to keep him warm if he needed it.
Touya was relieved that she seemed to drop off to sleep so easily. Touya loved sleeping. It was the only time his body didn't ache or throb from the damage his Quirk had done to it. It was cheap relief, a good amount of time where the pain didn't exist for a while.

He'd stayed up for a little while longer after she fell asleep, watching over the others, and shooting people that entered later on a sharp look, warning them silently not to come near him, or the girl.
Luckily for her, he had a fair reputation on the streets for not being someone to mess with, so the second his stony eyes would meet theirs, they'd instantly look away, move along, scram.
He wasn't going to risk it though. That's why he'd put her mat so close to the furthest wall from the door, placing his next to it so he'd be able to jump to her aid within seconds if she needed it.
When he'd been roused awake by the faint sound of sniffling, he hadn't really thought too much about it. It wasn't an uncommon thing to hear in shelters at night.

When he regained enough consciousness to realise that the sniffling was coming from right beside him though, he'd immediately bolted upright, squinting over at the little girl in the dark.
It was definitely her. He could faintly make out the shape of her body moving as she tried to silently sob. The sight was heartbreaking.
It was one he'd seen too often in his childhood home, and he really did not want to revisit those memories and put himself in a bad mood after promising Y/N he'd control his temper.
He reaches out to touch her shoulder, to let her know he's awake, that he's there, before remembering her reaction to being touched before and deciding against it.

"Hey." He whispers instead. "What's the matter, kid?"

There's a short silence as she continues talking shaky breaths and tries to control her sobs.

"It's dumb." She eventually whispers back, her voice cracking even so.

"Try me." He challenges.

More quiet sobs and shaky breaths, a small sigh filling the air.